I have played with a few true old schoolers. My parents never played (actually were opposed to me playing D&D in high school but they were in their 20s with young children during the 80s so I get where they’re coming from) but my first ever RPG was 1st edition AD&D with a friend of mine, his little brother, and their parents. The DM was the same guy who DMed for their parents when they were in college.

Nowadays, one of the fellows in an every-so-often Sunday 4E D&D game I play in is a true old school gamer. He played with Gary Gygax in the 70s and 80s and was heavily involved with the D&D tournaments at GenCon. I met him because his son joined my gaming group to see what it was his dad had always talked about.

My mom taught me how to play. when I was 7 or so she started me playing a game called “Castles” with her on graph paper, it was really simple at first but she added more rules over time. it wasn’t untill I was 12 or so and got a 3.5 bookset for my birthday that I reallized it was a really simplified version of DnD.

My first ever D&D experience was playing with my father and my siblings. My dad played all through college, and I suspect he was ecstatic over getting to share something he loved with all three of his children. My dad had some extremely clever ideas, too! The sheer level of creativity he would utilize in creating ambushes or sneaking up on enemies or getting out of traps was inspiring! Gave me a whole new level of respect for my dad. (I say this as an author of fantasy, too. lol)

I’m about to join a new RPing group, and it looks like there may be some old schoolers in there! 🙂

My dad actually introduced me to D&D back in the day. In fact, he DM’d a game for us back in high school, and later was a player in a game I DM’d. I’ve played with my dad many times, and have had nothing but great experiences with it. It’s a great way to bond.

I played D&D before it was AD&D, then dropped out for abotu 20 years. Now I’m introducing my 11 year old to it (and he’s DM-ing Runequest). Things have changed a bit, but it still comes down to the DM and the players.

Aww man, some of my favorite memories were playing with my uncle. He is pretty fond of playing diplomatic monks. He once talked a pissed off bear out of slaughtering our entire party, and then convinced it to be our traveling companion.

That was a long time ago and a lot of us have changed as gamers since then. Perhaps another game is finally in order.

My current DM started with 1st edition D&D when he was nine, and still prefers 1st and 2nd edition…mostly because he knows them so well that he can hack the everloving shit out of them (“So you wanna play one of the giant spirit wolves from Princess Mononoke? Gimme a sec, I’ve got dire wolf stats around here somewhere, and we’ll slap on some cleric powers…oh, and give you the ability to talk to animals!”). We newbs managed to talk him out of keeping THAC0, though.

I think I too qualify as an old-schooler, so I’ve played with myself plenty…um…if this were any other website I’d have to reword that, but I’ll let it stand.

Seriously though, even as an old-schooler, I think I must have stumbled into a good group. Our DM was stingy with XPs and treasure, so there acting and story telling were as important as the rules. I didn’t know there was a different way to play until I went to GenCon and during one session I didn’t just say ‘I turn undead’ and roll the dice, I actually said a couple of sentences calling on whatever god the cleric worshiped, and then rolled the dice, and I could tell it was not the preferred method of play at that table.

One of my best friends remembers her uncle and friends playtesting the original D&D (she knew Gygax, no joke!). No one in my family plays, but we’ve introduced our boys to Pathfinder, and now my oldest wants to play Deadlands!

Well, dad introduced my brother and I back in 3rd grade or so with tales of his 1e exploits when he was in college… Then we picked up the 3.0 starter box and he DM’d. 13 years later, I’m about to start my first ACKS campaign tomorrow. In the last year, I’ve gone from 3.5 powergamer to B/X grognardling by way of Traveller. Been fun all the way, but I have yet to play with one of the Old School.

I’ve actually been playing AD&D since I played with my mom’s group when I was five. I already had a good grasp of RPGs thanks to my parents before they split up, and I’ve just never really quit.

I may only be 23 now, but I started with AD&D1.0 and Gold Box, with people who’d been playing since it launched~

I still play 1st Edition, and my mom still occasionally, missing the old days, comes in to play guest characters/pseudo NPCs and to DM scenarios when I have to break to work on a new campaign because one clears.

My mom’s not a part of my crew all the time, but she’s definitely the cause of it~

My dad was who tought me dnd and dark sun and can be quite the old school dm. And when i was in my mid twenties tried pulling the same “you wana rest in the room you fought the dwarf banshee?” Shit again from when i was 11. They get back up those who dont know. Who does that to their young kid? Hah! Old gamers! And least years of running dark sun myself and my previous experiences i knew to say “hell no youre not doing that to me again”
Goin back trhu the archives usually dont have time for comment threads 🙂

My Dad and Uncle got me started way back when AD&D first came out, so I guess I am the old schooler, now. My Uncle picked up the original game and was one of the first players to really be in the Northern Utah and S. Western Wyoming area. Right up to the the day he died, he claimed credit for the game getting popular there, as he used to pester book store owners until they would order copies, then he would pester his friends into buying them. Also, on long car trips, my dad used to DM games for the four of us kids, using his watch’s second hand as a dice (he would just divide the result by three). Those were good times….